


As Per Usual

by Richard_Mont



Category: Original Work
Genre: Fantasy, Gen, Isekai
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-04 13:35:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20471876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Richard_Mont/pseuds/Richard_Mont
Summary: Magic isn't exactly normal in our world, so when Dennis Ward is the subject of a witches summoning ritual he's pretty confused. In this world though, it's so commonplace that Witches and Wizards can't expect special treatment for the miracles they perform nor do they expect confusion from those involved. An Isekai where just because you're summoned doesn't mean you're special.





	As Per Usual

**A Totally Normal Day**

As per usual, for most people it was generally a term used to denote a certain level of frustration or disappointment. ‘They choked right at the end and lost the game, as per usual.’, ‘He didn’t even give me the time of day, as per usual.’, ‘As per usual, you’re not even going to try are you?’. People who used that term weren’t happy with whatever statement or question preceded or followed it. For Dennis Ward however, he was just fine with a predictable day.

No trouble problems to deal with; no stress, no issues, just another day doing a job he enjoyed in a town he loved. Was he _ really _supposed to dislike a normal day? He reached over his shoulders with his right hand and took a hold of his left wrist, stretching out his shoulder as he stepped out of his car. It was a particularly crisp day out, forcing him to wear a thin, light blue windbreaker along with his usual Saturday outfit: a graphic t-shirt, denim jeans, and his gray tennis shoes. Today, he’d gone with a logo from one of his favorite video games, a chalice backed by two crossed swords.

His car wasn’t anything special, but he had no complaints about it. It was a dark blue sedan from the car dealership on the other side of town, the drive home after buying it was the furthest he’s ever driven the thing on a one way trip. He wasn’t sure of the make or model, it was big enough for him to fit comfortably at five foot, eight inches and had a big enough trunk for his weekly grocery run. He switched arms, his left hand grabbing his right wrist and getting a satisfying _ pop _ in return, before shutting the drivers side door and making his way to his destination.

A local supermarket, to get his weekly groceries. Just another Saturday spent preparing for the coming week, as per usual. A smile graced his face as he came up to the door, his own reflection looking back at him in the glass. A thick mop of black hair topped a pale, somewhat rectangular face with dull brown eyes framed by circular glasses. His thin lips were pulled into the aforementioned smiled, pushing a set of dimples into mildly fatty cheeks. He wasn’t the most athletic person, probably a dozen or so pounds overweight. What could he say, he liked a good, medium rare steak on a lazy day.

Dennis reached forward and grabbed the door handle, pushing it open. A small bell chimed in response, announcing his presence to the young lady at the register. She turned to see who was coming in, saw him, and gave a half-hearted wave as she chewed on what he figured was most likely gum. A calm smile, a wave back in return, and he moved on to grab a cart. As per usual for this time on a Saturday, the supermarket was quiet and he practically had the store to himself. The cart had a screwy left wheel in the front, whirling and rattling as he pushed it forward to towards the cereal.

Then he felt a sharp pain in his chest and left arm, followed by the world going black.

* * *

Dennis blinked as his sight returned to him, his vision cluttered with… video game menus? He reached out towards them only to immediately notice something was different about himself. He turned his hand so his palm was facing him and noticed his arm looked much more defined than he remembered. There was very little fat and instead his arm was lined with lean muscle and tanned caucasian skin. His hands were smooth, despite him remembering quite a few scars earned through follies in his youth, and his nails were well-trimmed despite his tendency to cut them too short. Looking down at the rest of him he saw he was wearing a white tunic, brown trousers, and a vest that appeared to be made from an animal's skin?

“What in the world…?”

“It worked!”

He jumped at the sound of a young, feminine voice, and the menus immediately closed to reveal a young woman wearing a white tunic that went just over here waist, a beige skirt reaching down to her ankles, a matching bolero jacket… and a crown of leaves? In her hands was a wooden rod as tall as she was with a small lantern on top, complete with a lit candle, and her feet were devoid of any shoes or socks despite the dirt floor underneath them.

Her face was pale, and from what he could see if her arms under her jacket sleeves she was fairly thin. Her face was angular and set with a round nose, small lips, and sharp green eyes that seemed to glow in the low light of the room. She seemed rather happy to see him, for whatever reason, as she put down the, was it a staff, and took a spear from where it was leaning on the wall. “Here, take this!”

“I-”

A light blue box appeared with the words _Acquired Spear x1_ on it, then disappeared as soon as he had read it. He looked at the spear in his hands, wondering to himself what the hell was going on and another blue box appeared as if coming from the spear itself. _Basic Spear - 4 to 10 DMG - Melee Range 5 - Thrown Range 15. Made by Thrawn Anvil._ The box disappeared as soon as he looked away from the spear and back towards the woman. “I know it’s not much, but it’s all I have right now for you, I wasn’t planning to summon you yet but my hand was forced by the creatures outside. If we don’t hurry they’ll burn this whole village down!”

“Village, creatures, I don’t understand what’s going on here?”

She looked at him with a surprised look on her face, then shook her head. “Must be some sort of confusion brought on by the summoning ritual. Look, my name is Esmera Penghast, I would love to explain everything but we really don’t have time!”

Another box came into view, this time it was a dull yellow and came from the woman, Esmera. _ Quest Offer - Save Blackwood Village - Accept Y/N? _ None of this was making sense, was he in the middle of some kind of fever dream or a hallucination? What was with the game popups and _ holy crap did he just have a fucking heart attack!? _

There was a crashing sound from above them and a small, ashen skinned creature fell from the ceiling. It had white, thin hair, a reptilian head, and knob-like joints and _ that’s a lot of teeth! _ Esmera spun around and let out a string of words that he could barely understand as she pointed her staff(?) at the creature. The flame on the candle grew and a set of bright orange bolts exploded from the lantern, arcing through the air at different angles before they all slammed into it. He flinched back as the creature exploded in a burst of orange energy and a new notification appeared.

_ Discovered New Spell - Magic Missile _

She turned around to face him. “Now, shall we get going?”

“... Yeah okay.” 

He really didn’t want to risk being the target of that. Also, did she just use magic, _ magic exists!? _

Esmera turned away from him and stepped over the stain on the floor to the opposite wall. There was a ladder, leading up to a hatch in the ceiling. “Come on, let’s get out of this basement and stop these things from causing more trouble!”

He gulped and walked forward, idly noticing he’d been standing in the middle of a bunch of rings made up of symbols he didn’t recognize. She stared at him as he looked up at the hatch, raising an eyebrow when he looked back at her. “Well?”

Dennis reached up, undoing the latch that kept the hatch closed before pushing it open. There weren’t any new sounds, though the sounds that had just been mild background noise were now much more defined and were violent in nature. Still not wanting to be the target of a bunch of glowing missiles, he climbed up the ladder, finding himself in a small room with rather simple looking furniture straight out of a medieval museum. There was a bed, a table and chair, a place for a fire and cauldron, a hole in the wall resembling a window, all in a room two thirds the size of his living room… where was he, _ when _was he?

He heard the woman come up the ladder behind him and turned around to see her close the hatch and dust herself off. “Alright, we need to meet up with the militia, but first, do the thing.”

“The thing?” What was the thing?

“Where you share your power, you’re a Magus, we don’t have time to mess around!”

He felt sweat roll down his neck as he looked around, what the hell did she mean by that, what was a Magus!? A new menu as he looked at her, this time a dark blue with white letters. _ Invite to Party - Esmera Penghast - Witch - Y/N? _

Hopefully this is what she was asking for.

Once she was invited, a small red bar appeared over her head with her name floating over it, along with _ Lv. 1 _ next to it. She then glowed for a moment before looking over herself and nodding. “Perfect, now, let's save the village!”

This was not an ‘as per usual’ day, this was the furthest thing from as per usual and he didn’t like it!

Esmera opened the door and the string of strange, unknown words were spoken again however this time he almost felt like he could make out the odd word or two. A small, greyl meter with the words _ Magic Missile _ appeared over her head, with a small part of it turning orange. “Come on, Magus!”

He gulped and rushed out of the room, immediately coming face to face with one of the creatures. Dennis bit back a yelp and swung his spear at it. The tip of the spear cut into the creatures face, drawing blood and triggering a red bar to appear over the creatures head with _ ??? _ as its name. It jumped back and he tripped forward as something ran into his back. He thrust the spear forward, intending to stab it into the ground and catch himself. He managed the second part, but rather than stab into the ground he’d drove the spear into the creatures chest to catch himself instead.

_ +10 Exp _

“Why’d you stop, we need to keep moving!”

“R-Right!” Dennis pulled the spear out of the creature and looked around. Esmera was already running down a dirt path. He took a moment to look around and at least try to find his bearings. There were a few small houses, or maybe huts would be the better term. They appeared to be made from timber and woven sticks covered in mud, unlike the wooden house the witch had summoned him in. Perhaps she was an important figure in the area? He followed after her, he certainly didn’t want to get caught alone with those creatures.

Following the path, he came to what he assumed was the villages town square. There were a few knocked over stands, a cart, and Esmera was standing in front of two men. The two men were wearing white tunics, brown trousers , and vests made from what appeared to be animal skin. “Esmera, for the love of- What are you still doing here!?” One of the men shouted. Dennis noted the man had a wooden shield in one hand a spear much like the one Esmera had given him in the other. The other man on the other hand while still carrying a shield, had a wooden club with metal lining the upper half.

“Helping, you boar!” Esmera said as Dennis caught up with her. The two men looked at him, the one with the club tightening his grip on his weapon. “With him, those stupid monsters won’t know what hit them!”

The man with the spear gave him a once over, looking unimpressed. “I don’t know who you are stranger, but you should turn around and leave this to the militia, I-”

Esmera moved between Dennis and the spearman. “He’s not just some random stranger, you dunce! He is a Magus and with his help, those gremlin will be a breeze to kill!” She said, getting a shocked look from the two men. Dennis noted that she appeared to puff up and bask in the looks for a moment, he could practically see her preening in her head. “Magus, share your power with the captain as well, if you would.”

He looked back at the spearman, who looked at him in return. He still had no idea what was going on… but she wanted him to invite the guy into their party? “Uh… sure... “ He said as he looked over the man, wondering how the hell to do that. _ ‘Uh… Invite to Party?’ _

The moment he thought it, a dark blue box like the one that had shown up before appeared. _ Invite to Party - Captain - ??? - Y/N? _ He looked at the Y and it lit up before a red bar appeared over the ‘Captain’s head and he glowed momentarily. Rather than seeing a name, the title of Captain floated above the bar. The man, reacting to his sudden glowing, jumped and looked over himself. “By Rhygom- what did you… nevermind, explain later, we’ve gremlins to kill.”

Esmera nodded and looked over at Dennis, giving him a smug look. “Good work Magus.” She said before turning to ‘Captain’. “Just leave everything to-”

“If you’re going to help, Esmera, you’re following my orders and so is your Magus.” ‘Captain’ said. Dennis felt an eye twitch, why were they talking about him like he belonged to her… did he belong to her? Was he a slave!? Before he could object to the idea the captain pointed his spear to their left. “A few gremlins got through our defenses, we were going to chase them down but if you two are in such a hurry to help-”

He wasn’t in any hurry, he still didn’t know what was going on.

“- then chase them down, take them out, and then come to reinforce the east palisades.” ‘Captain’ said before turning around and breaking into sprint. “Leonard, let’s get back!”

“R-Right!”

Dennis noted the club carrying man, Leonard, sounded a fair bit younger than ‘Captain’ did, was he even an adult? Esmera crossed her arms next to him, letting out an annoyed huff. “Damned idiot, ordering me around like that… Let’s go Magu-” “Dennis.”

Esmera looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “What was that Magus?” She asked, she didn’t look curious to him, or like she even cared. She looked annoyed if anything. Dennis felt sweat roll down the back of his neck in response to the look but pushed on.

“My name, it’s Dennis, you could at least use it.” He said, and Esmera’s eyes widened a bit, the look of annoyance clearing up. Then she pouted and turned her back to him, raising her left hand and waving it in a circle beside her head.

“I see, well, _ Dennis _ , let’s go and deal with those gremlins, we don’t want them starting a fire here.” Esmera said as she looked towards where ‘Captain’ had pointed his spear. There was another dirt path leading away from the town square. Dennes heard Esmera give another annoyed huff before she started running in that direction. “Keep up and keep an eye out, _ Dennis _!”

Was she mocking him? It was a good name! He followed behind her, clutching the spear in his hands in an attempt to get some feeling of safety. As soon as they were out of the town center and on the dirt path, he noticed the sound of small feet scrambling towards them. One of the ashen skinned, lizard faced creatures jumped out from between the buildings towards Esmera, a rudimentary spear made with a rib tied to the end of a stick in hand. She let out a short scream and attempted to jump back away from the creature, which now had the word _ Gremlin _ over its head instead of _ ??? _, but the bone spear still made purchase with her right thigh.

Esmera caught herself, biting back any other sounds of pain as she favored her left leg and swung her staff. Another set of unintelligible words flew from her lips and the lantern of her staff glowed bright red before she swung it at the gremlin. Rather than get hit, The gremlin ducked back into the alley it’d jumped out of, and Esmera let out what Dennis assumed to be a curse under her breath. He noticed another gremlin running up towards her from behind, this one carrying what appeared to be an axe made from a jaw bone.

Dennis’s eyes widened as he moved from a run to a full sprint for the last five feet, putting himself between the gremlin and Esmera before thrusting the spear forward. The gremlin appeared to try and stop itself from going forward but it’s momentum still caused it to impale itself on the spear. A blue box with the words _ Created Martial Skill, Intervene. _appeared as the gremlin screamed. It tried to yank itself from the spear, flailing its limbs and dropping its weapon as it did so. Dennis winced at the sight, pulling his spear to try and remove it from the gremlin onto to pull the gremlin with it. He lifted his foot and put it against the creatures stomach to hold it in place while he pulled his spear out, the creature responding by repeatedly attempting to bash his foot with it’s arms.

_ Squelch _

He yanked the spear out and then thrust again, impaling the creature in the neck. It squirmed weakly before falling limp, pulling the spear free from the gremlin, a small notification saying _ +10 Exp _ as he did so. He turned, looking around to see if there were more of them. The one with the bone spear had come back out from the alleyway, along with one holding a wooden rod with a skull tied to the top. Dennis noticed the lantern head of Esmera’s staff still glowing as she jabbed it at the nearest gremlin, this time making contact. There was a loud Bang and the gremlin flew back as if it’d been hit by a car.

_ +10 Exp, Discovered Arcane Blow. _

Dennis put himself between the final gremlin and held his spear ready. The gremlin hissed at him, hitting its skull mace against the ground. Another group of words, still difficult to understand before five red bolts of energy appeared in the edges of his peripheral vision and slammed into the gremlin. Dennis closed his eyes and turned his head just as the creature exploded, a few bits of gore landing on him. He looked down and brushed the pieces that stuck to his vest off. _ +10 Exp _.

“That’s three down.” Esmera said, getting him to turn around towards her. She was favoring her left leg as she leaned on her staff. He looked at her right leg and winced, the bone spear might not have looked like much, but they must have sharpened it pretty well. The wound was bleeding pretty badly, nothing that suggested it was fatal and the red bar over her head, while smaller, wasn’t shrinking. “Don’t worry about it, just keep close and watch my back, _ Dennis _.”

“Are you sure? It’s bleeding something fierce…”

She snorted. “Is that so, well, there’s nothing we can do about it now and if those gremlins get a hold of someone who can’t protect themselves, it'll be a lot worse.” Esmera said as she straightened up. Dennis looked away from her and scanned their surroundings, he didn’t hear any scrabbling footsteps coming towards them. “Hold on… how many grem- That bastard!”

Dennis jumped at the sudden shout, focusing his attention on the now rather angry looking Esmera. “He didn’t say how many gremlins got through to this part of town, we don’t know how many are here!” Esmera said, lifting her leg as if to stomp in frustration only to hiss in pain and bring her foot down gently. Dennis thought back to the conversation, quickly realizing she was right. Maybe the could take advant-

Alarms rang in the back of his head, and he noticed a flashing red light in the upper left of his vision. When he attempted to focus on it, it moved to the center and expanded and a party list. A red bar that matched the one above Esmera head hung above a much smaller flashing bar. His eyes widened as his brain connected the dots. “What, is something wro-”

He heard a loud crash from the direction ‘Captain’ would have gone, and the bar disappeared, replaced with a gray one.


End file.
